Substrate rugosity and temperature matters: patterns of benthic diversity at tropical intertidal reefs in the SW Atlantic.

ABSTRACT: Modeling and forecasting ocean ecosystems in a changing world will require advances in observational efforts to monitor marine biodiversity. One of the observational challenges in coastal reef ecosystems is to quantify benthic and climate interactions which are key to community dynamics across habitats. Habitat complexity (i.e., substrate rugosity) on intertidal reefs can be an important variable explaining benthic diversity and taxa composition, but the association between substrate and seasonal variability is poorly understood on lateritic reefs in the South Atlantic. We asked if benthic assemblages on intertidal reefs with distinct substrate rugosity would follow similar seasonal patterns of succession following meteo-oceanographic variability in a tropical coastal area of Brazil. We co

SUBMITTER: Mazzuco ACA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7087490 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature